Are we witnessing a renaissance in media owners’ data and audience strategies?It feels like yesterday when many media brands believed having a data strategy meant sprinkling their inventory with ambiguously-sourced third-party data. That data often…

Media Owners Revolutionize Their Data Strategies While Facing New Risks Along The Way

I recently had the opportunity to dive deeply into how media owners approach the diversification and the coexistence of business models built on audience, data and monetization strategies.It was a privileged observation point, where I engaged with a…

For Media Owners, A Single Customer View Starts In The Boardroom

Digital advertising is becoming subtly and silently polarized. Not in the angry, conflicted way currently witnessed in politics, but a bifurcation in the road ahead is clearly taking shape.On one side is a group with a worldview that identifies the…

The Funnel Of Trust Is The Best Path To Media Monetization

One more Digital Immersion Programme by FT Strategies with the support of the Google News Initiative has ended yesterday.
Working on the project with the FT Strategies team and moderating it alongside Virginia Stagni with the guest participation of…

Digital Immersion Programme by FT Strategies and Google News Initiative: a few closing thoughts

From the consumer’s point of view, advertising hasn’t evolved.Digital ads mimic print’s design as simply a space on a page. And video ads take the old TV approach of interrupting content.The promise of rich media and creativity in the early aughts…

To Win Back The Audience, Digital Advertising Must Return To Innovation

Remember all the times that media owners complained about how the majority of advertisers’ budgets end up in the pockets of Google and Facebook?Today a growing number of global and local advertisers are joining the “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign,…

Media Owners Need A New And Powerful Narrative To Attract Ad Spend

I have always considered a programmatic monoculture to be one of the biggest threats to digital advertising.A lack of diversity in experience, backgrounds and perspectives has hindered healthy development and balance in the sector. Now, the debate…

As The Industry Reinvents Itself, Diverse Perspectives Have Never Been More Critical

The death of the cookie – the revolution we face in the digital ad industry is not "just" about the rethinking of some technical processes.&nbsp;This is a much more complex process that will redefine web standards, affect the practical ways…

Media owners must work together to fight for the future of digital advertising

The advertiser-funded Programmatic Supply Chain Transparency Study by the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) triggers a feeling of déjà vu.The report found that publishers receive an average of 51% of advertiser spend, while 15% of…

What The ISBA Report Is Really Telling Us

Sports federations, leagues, clubs and athletes are fighting for their future. In a matter of weeks live sport evaporated due to COVID-19, with some events postponed and others officially concluded long before their planned end dates.In Europe, where…

Rethinking Sports Through The Lens Of Media, Data And Fans

Many first incorrectly considered COVID-19 to be a “China issue,” then it became an “Asia issue.” Now it's a humankind issue.Humanity, locked down in homes or not, is coping with a very high level of uncertainty, stress, fear and even panic.Two…

Short-Termism Can Do Great Damage During A Pandemic

Many media owners still struggle to see the long-term opportunity in front of them.But I am filled with hope when I hear that some “media owners are building walled gardens,” explicitly to counteract the future absence of third-party cookies, almost…

Media, Not Ad Slots, Is The Product

The tide is turning in an ecosystem that should work harmonically but has for years favored one side at the expense of the other. Digital advertising is on the right path to regain value and fairness and benefit those that provide the financial…

For Media Companies, 2020 Will Be Determined By The Choices They Make Now

Companies’ user data ownership is dead, but we may have not fully realized and accepted it yet.How will privacy trends evolve over the long term and really affect the advertising and marketing sectors – not to mention citizens at large?I believe we…

Consent, Not Data, Is The New Oil

After several months of debate, speculation and conflicting positions following the earthquake caused by privacy regulation changes and global trends, the industry seems to cluster around and agree on a few concepts for the future: identity, consent…

Data Platforms Enable First-Party Data Strategies – But Aren’t A Substitute For One

Various complaints argue that RTB is incompatible with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation and other privacy regulations emerging around the world. Regardless of the complaints’ outcomes, it seems clear that RTB is not a sustainable…

Ignoring The Clash Between RTB And Privacy Regulations Doesn’t Remove The Threat

I find brand safety one of the most baffling contradictions of our industry. It often represents the exact opposite situation in which any quality media owner should want to put itself, and it is the most misleading proxy for quality that an…

Brand Safety Is Not Synonymous With Quality

Some could argue that media brands’ first-party user-level data is of high quality, but probably not unique if compared to Google’s, Facebook’s or Amazon’s.What nobody can disagree on is the uniqueness of the context and the environment of quality…

Smarter Contextual Targeting Is Media Brands’ Weapon Of The Future

Unilever recently announced “Unilever Trusted Publishers,” a network of global, regional and local publishers and platforms with whom it will build a media environment with common standards for viewability, verification, ad fraud prevention, brand…

Can Advertisers’ Pressure Jumpstart Publishers’ Alliances?

The digital advertising industry needs, more than ever, privacy advocates and activists – some strong, external pressure and entities holding it to account. New evidence has recently been submitted to privacy regulators in Poland, Ireland and the…